Cooking, Touring & Experiencing Local Life in Italy

Food

Amatriciana sauce is a red pasta sauce, usually served with Bucatini or Spaghetti pasta that comes from the small town of Amatrice. Amatrice is in northern Lazio, not too far from Soriano or Norcia (two of our locations) but…

If you’ve been on our Soriano tour, you might remember Carbonara from our Thursday night class. It’s a very rich spaghetti dish made with pancetta, eggs, and a whole lotta cheese :). I wouldn’t suggest it if you’re on a…

On Thursdays in Soriano we go to a winery and olive mill and learn how their exceptional extra virgin olive oil is made. After a tour of their olive mill, Serena (the owner) treats us to some home made food…

There is no shortage of restaurants in Rome, but the truth is, most of the ones you see when you are touring around the city, are catering to tourists and a local would never be caught eating there. Rome is…

Planes are incubators for sicknesses. And what really stinks is saving up your money, traveling across the world and getting to your destination just to spend the whole time sick in a hotel room. Here are my favorite tips…

It may be hard to believe just how important Easter is in Italy, here in the US, its not nearly as big. In Italy, Easter is arguably the most important holiday after Christmas. The Holy Week starts the…

An article recently appeared on HuffPost Travel that went quite viral. It is a list of 7 things that would make Americans better off if they would adapt from Italian culture. The article (Original Linked Here) is spot on, and…

Updated 02/2014 Olive Garden is one of those places that really sets my blood to boil. Every time I hear the word ‘Hospitaliano’ I begin to cringe and twitch. When I hear them say ‘When you’re here, you’re family’, I…

In November 2011, Culture Discovery Vacations brought a group of guests to a small traditional cold press olive mill. They harvested olives in Umbria, brought them to the mill, and operated the mill, making their own olive oil from start to finish.